Fall 2010 Picture Review

Steve's arrival in Indonesia

Steve meets with Bible College and Seminary leaders as well as the leadership of the National Indonesia Evangelical Church to see how our alumni can help meet their needs.
Worshiping service at which Steve shared.
The mountains of Papua where there are still over 200 unreached tribes. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send Micronesians here.
Fall Retreat - Koinonia 2 (Fellowship with God and Man) speaker Kenny Clark sharing on the Cost of Discipleship.

Group activities included hiking Mt. Lam Lam - the tallest mountain in the world (from the bottom of the sea).
At the top of the world. This mountain receives a new cross each year on Good Friday when many of the island's residents make a pilgrimage to its summit.
Soram's climb was an example to all of us of not giving up no matter how hard it is. He arrived at the summit long after the rest, but he kept at it one step at a time until he was greeted with many cheers.Day 2's outing was to Guam's famous Inarajan Pools. Lots of fun diving and swimming was had as well as a couple of painful belly flops from 10ft. up.

In Chuuk, Steve met with Gardina, the director of the Chuuk State Department of Education, to see how PIU can partner with Chuuk DOE to upgrade their education system.
Steve and Dave Owen (PIU President) also met with the board of Mizpah Christian High School to discover ways to work together. Several of our alumni teach here.
One day these 5 students decided to come bless and encourage the PIU office staff with songs and scripture. They did exactly that!
PIU's Fall 2010 Basketball Team has done very well - playoff's will be after Christmas.
So much of what we do depends of donations to the school. Here our librarian, Lisa Collins, is opening a donation of books from Switzerland that were mailed to us in a gunny sack. As you can see they actually came in better shape than some things that arrive in boxes.
Charity, Beulah, and Glendallyne - three of the 5 girls in Anne's discipleship group. We were on an outing to Two Lover's Point and a beach walk below the cliff.
Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary Preaching Conference held at Top of the Reef Hotel in Tumon drew over 70 participants.
The Women's Ministry Class prepared all aspects of a mini-retreat. Here women faculty and staff were asked about dating and marriage. A great Titus 2:3-5 time.
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated at PIU each year with a huge meal in the middle of the day as well as worship, thanksgivings, a message and a bit of a history lesson for the benefit of those who do not know about American traditions.
Here Stephanie Wise (left) poses with the team from Bryan College in Tennessee that came to see how we can expand our partnership at PIU and what assistance they can offer in Chuuk. Pictured are Danielle Rebman, Ray Legg, Ben Williams, and Matt Benson. Stephanie, prior to coming to Guam worked with these fine folk at Bryan.
The semester ended with a boating trip to dolphin watch, dive and snorkel that was sponsored by PIU's new dive program. It was a great day out in God's creation

What Happened to the Semester?

It flew by - filled daily with blessings, adventures, and challenges.

Steve traveled to Papua, Indonesia, Chuuk (twice), Yap, Palau, and the US. The results of these trips are that we have so many opportunities available that we are asking the Lord which ones and for what times. We also had visitors from one of our partner schools, Bryan College in
Tennessee and South Pacific Campus Crusade for Christ as we explored together how we can advance the kingdom our our Lord in this part of the world. Steve also kept the Advancement Office advancing and oversaw what God is doing in the Human Resources Department. He has also been working on the development of our mission program called SURGG which will place our students and alumni on the mission field for various lengths of time. More details coming.

Anne continued in the front office and so enjoys greeting all that come through the door and helping the faculty, staff, students and guests as needed. Many a day this leads to those "divine appointments" and she stands amazed that she gets to see the Lord's hand at work in so many, many ways. She has also had the privilege of teaching the Word to 2 ladies groups (Ephesians with one group & Jonah with the other). She also meets with 5 students in a discipleship group for a little physical exercise and then time in the Word. Another privilege has been meeting with another woman one-on-one for discipleship. She also was asked to speak at a women's retreat sponsored by one of Guam's local churches. Thanks to all who have prayed so diligently for this to come about in God's timing.

The highlight of the semester was our annual Fall Retreat at which Kenny Clark of Grace Evangelical Free Church in So. Cal. was the the main speaker. His 4 talks were on the Cost of Discipleship. Outings, service projects, a car wash, basketball games, a mini women's retreat
planned by the Women's Ministry class, a children's outreach by the Principles of Teaching class, ministry by students to other students at the University of Guam (UOG), and through Big Brothers, Big Sisters at a local middle school made up some of the many other happenings.

PIES - Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary, part of PIU, held its first Preaching Conference for island pastors and church workers. This was very well attended with over 70 participants. Mark Mitchell of Central Peninsula Church of Foster City, Ca. (near San Fran) was the speaker.

This semester has also seen much student initiated spiritual activity which is bearing fruit. A few students began committing themselves to rising early for prayer and devotions together. The basketball team told their coach they wanted to do more than just play ball - they wanted to be an example to others of walking with the Lord off the court as well as on the court. At nightly dorm devotion times students are sharing their stories with other students and as a result at least 6 students trusted Christ as Savior this semester after realizing they didn't truly know Christ. Others have been able to release old bitternesses and unforgiveness and have found new joy in their relationships with the Lord. At the same time, this has been a very hard semester as our Enemy has not given up the ground he held easily. But we can say, "we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord!"

As we end this semester, a student organized team of 36 PIU and UOG students is in Saipan doing youth and children's outreaches, door to door evangelism, and service projects. Steve will join them Christmas night and preach the Sunday services at the Palaun Church.

Thank you for your faithful prayers on our behalf! Pictures of some of these activities will follow this posting.

Fall 2010 Semester Begins

We are off and running! Here a few of our students are waiting to finish up their registration process. This year we have students from Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, the Marshalls, and Guam, as well as, Korea, Taiwan, China, and Bangladesh. We also have Kevin from Iowa (in blue shirt above) and Josh from North Carolina (in red shirt above), Daisy from Texas, Doug from Virginia, and Scott from California. Quite the international student body - but so exciting to see the oneness that Christ brings to the PIU family. Below are Lindsey (from Palau) and Scott.

After a long day in registration lines the PIU worship team put together a night of worship, fellowship and games. It was a great way to start getting to know the newest arrivals on campus and to renew old friendships. Not everyone had arrived yet, but those of us there greatly enjoyed the time. They even turned the drum sticks over to Steve for a couple of songs!

Making joyful melodies to the Lord is something we all love to do at PIU.

There are many ways PIU students interact with the community during the school year and the first weekend back Grace, Teisy, and Jayleen and several others helped at PIU's booth at the Island Girl Power Carnival. Our PIU ladies have the opportunity to mentor young girls through this organization, which is similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Here they are modeling PIU's new logo representing the school's name: The Tide.

Pray that the Lord will continue working deeply in each student's life this year and that more and more each student will desire to allow God's Spirit complete control in their lives. Pray for the faculty and staff to carefully model Christ-likeness in their teaching and daily lives also. Every year students come to PIU who do not yet truly know Christ. Pray that the Holy Spirit would speak to these and that they will surrender their lives to HIM and that they will find the joy and freedom of walking with HIM.

Girls Nights at the Stinnette

One of the fun things Anne gets to do when Steve is traveling is have a few girls at a time over for the night or weekend. This time we remembered to take a few pictures too. Sometimes we just hang out, other times we play games, or have serious talks about living the Christian life out in the circumstances we live in daily. We are so blessed to have so many students that really want to learn to walk with Christ in a way that will bring Him glory.

Below Teisy is enjoying some popcorn while watching Jayleen do pedicures - what you can't see is the amazing flowers and designs she is able to do with nail polish.

Lucy and Lynn clean up after our dinner. Bless you ladies!
Maybe this should have come first since it was dinner that night.
Anne reading off Facebook what other students who were on campus were saying to these students. Lots of laughter and encouragement! Discipleship in action - Heb. 10-24-25!

Guest Teachers at PIU Summer of 2010

What a privilege it has been to have good friends & fellow team mates David and Jill Mayer out here with us in Guam and Micronesia this summer all the way from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Jill came for 2 months to help teach our new summer intensive English program. She and 3 other teachers started the program which has students fully immersed in English during 4 classes, meals, study time, devotions and recreation 5 days a week. Many students come to PIU wanting to take classes, but their English skills are not up to college level work. This program was designed to help these students in manner that will greatly increase their chances of succeeding in a US accredited school. Jill and her students have had a great time learning English and interacting on just about every area of life and how walking with the Lord makes a difference. Thank you Jill for your investment in their lives. They will never be the same because of your investment in their lives.

David, has recently been accepted as a board member for PIU. He arrive on island the third of July and was able to stay 2 weeks. He is helping PIU with its plans for campus growth. He and Steve spent much of David's time on island meeting with government officials and others to discover the best ways to help PIU grow its physical location so that we can train more people for the "harvest field". David, Steve, and David's daughter Anna also spent 3 days in Yap so that David could meet our Yapese board member and gain some cultural insight into Micronesian life.
David thank you for sharing your wife and daughter with us for so long and being willing to invest so much of your time and talent for the students of PIU. We will see you out here again in February!

We also have had lots of fun seeing and experiencing life on Guam. Anna even braved picking up a coconut crab at Chamorro Village one evening. We've toured, and hike and snorkeled our way around the island. Often we were accompanied by other students or staff. Anna was also able to help out with Vacation Bible School at Bayview Baptist Church while she was here. Our students love her and will miss her a great deal.
Michael and Libby Stroh also joined our summer teaching crew. Originally from Ohio (not far from where the Mayers originated), Mike has been studying at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas for the past few years and came to Guam to work on his internship and to teach the General Epistles class. Libby was also part of our Basic English program and taught reading.
Thanks so much for all you gave to each student and staff member. We already miss you. (On one of our reef walks, Mike found this blue starfish and several others, one of which had 6 legs instead of 5.)

Below is the Certificate in Basic English teaching crew plus Mike. Mike and Libby you've met. Then there is Jen Rydzik (in the middle) has been teaching remedial English with us since Fall 2009. Sarah Brubaker (a recent graduate of Columbia International University in SC) joined us this summer also. She taught the Bible portion of the CBE program and will continue on this next school year teaching the Freshman English courses. Jill taught the writing segment and after Libby had to return Stateside, she took over the reading segment as well. Well done one and all!

Voices of Micronesia Tour

The Voices of Micronesia, PIU's traveling team, has been touring throughout California most of the summer and has been visiting churches and other venues to promote the ministry of Pacific Islands Bible College. This week they made the long trek to Texas to continue their presentations. Their program consists of Island worship songs and dance, testimonies, and skits. If you have been reading this blog, you have already met each student on the the team. Also accompanying the team are 6 PIU staff: our president, Dave Owen and his wife Joyce, Eric Sorenson, Dean of the Seminary, and his wife Karyn, and Delight and Evelyn Suda. It is our prayer that the Lord will use this team to encourage churches that have been supporting PIU or PIU faculty and staff; present the power of the risen Christ, recruit potential faculty, staff and students (including current Stateside Micronesians), and develop donor relationships for the school for on going capital improvements.

We have received nothing but positive responses from these presentations. Many have said that if they had known the quality of the presentations were going to be as good as they are, they would have made sure even more people were there. It has also been a growing experience for our students as they learn to live and travel together and to adjust to the many different families they have been graciously housed by along the way.

One opportunity they were given was to sing in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, to the street people. This was a very eye opening experience for all as homelessness is not something that is seen in Micronesia. They also got to spend time sharing the gospel one on one with those in the crowd.
One of the team's goals is to bring the Gospel back to those who have sent it to them. A skit is a good way to make a point with few words and in a way that transcends cultural barriers
Here Delight Suda, PIU's financial aid officer, shares his testimony at a church in Susanville, Ca.
The stick dances of Micronesia are a work of precision and tell a story. Our students have adapted these dances for use in proclaiming the Gospel.
Worship dance is a favorite for our women. These's are a combination of sign language and "hula" style Micronesian dance.
In Santa Cruz the team was given an opportunity to be on local television. Her Kita is sharing her testimony.
Another donor made it possible for the team to record a CD. Here they are in the recording studio.
Grace Baptist Church of Salado, Texas. The home church of PIU's assistant dean of women, Daisy Murdock donated the use of their church van for the summer. In fact, 2 church members drove it from Texas to LA in May when the team arrived in the States. This church also ministers to a large group of Palauans that live in the Salado & Killeen area.

For all but 2, this was the first time our students had seen snow. In fact, the day they were taken to the mountains in northern California it was snowing! Many a picture was taken of their first romp in the snow. They also made a snow creation, but couldn't be called a snowman.

Pray that the long term benefits from this trip will be worked out in the lives of these students for years to come. Pray also that PIU's support base will also increase.

Graduation Day - May 10, 2010

Graduation Day is a day of celebration at PIU. This year graduation was held at Faith Presbyterian Church and friends and family gathered to rejoice with our graduates and thank God for His faithfulness in their lives. 8 Associate of Arts Degrees and 11 Bachelor of Arts Degrees were earned this year. As the graduates gathered to enter, Dr. Bill Wood, current faculty member and former President of PIBC, used his musical talent to provided the prelude music. Faculty marched in and were seated and then Ned Farnsworth, faculty and Student Life team member, presented the graduates by playing "Pomp & Circumstance".
Board member and former academic dean, Mary Johnson, gave the invocation and Rob Watt, VP of Student Life greet all and was our master of ceremony. Steve Stinnette was given the privilege of introducing long time friend Mrs. Kiki Stinnett, as the guest speaker. Kiki is a member of the PIU Advisory Board and President of the Chuuk Women's Council as well as being a successful businesswoman. She and Steve have affectionately called each other "cousin" for many years. KiKi is married to the only other Stinnett(e) in Micronesia - a transplant like us from Virginia. Kiki challenged our students to make a difference in their islands for Christ through whatever avenue of employment they found themselves in. She spoke from her heart to theirs as no one else could do.

The valedictorian, Doug O'Meara shared his thought with us and then diplomas were awarded. Afterward, Dr. David Owen, PIU President presented his challenge to the students. Below our graduates have just turned their tassels and are preparing to present their class song.

Iotaka Choram, faculty member, gave the benediction and Ned Farnsworth played the recessional and postlude. All gather outside for refreshments and then the fun begins. Friends and family deck our graduates with leis and gifts until they are hidden beneath them. Here are Chelsea Phillip (Saludatorian) and Doug O'Meara (Valedictorian) posing with the start of their stash of leis. Chelsea was the student speaker at the Baccalaureate service the day before and did and excellent job!

Breathing can become a problem as the leis are piled higher and higher. Pictured below are Dave Souleng, Maybellene Marar, Miury Marar, and Alicia Pedros.

Our graduates go on to many things - some work in their island churches, one young man is taking steps to take the Gospel to some of the still unreached islands of Micronesia, some are teachers, others get government jobs, some are going on for further schooling such as seminary or nursing, some stay at PIU and join our staff. Several alumni have heard God's call to go to other countries with the Gospel and are awaiting His timing. Pray that they will be faithful to use what God has entrusted to them. They are among the most educated in all of Micronesia and with that comes great responsibility before God and man.

If you have prayed for us over the years or for the school you have had a part in the lives of these students. Thank you! More than few of PIU's current students are the children of those we saw accept Christ as Savior more than 30 years ago. Our God truly does not let His Word return void without accomplishing what He sent it to do. (Isaiah 55:11)